If there is one thing I would like to encourage all of you, as Commander players, to do, it's this: try something different.

Run 40 lands would be a close second, but even more than that, I really encourage you to stretch beyond what is easy, obvious, or familiar. Are you Spikey, and optimize every deck so it's a well-oiled killing machine? Build something wacky and play it now and again. Do you buy precons and play them, with maybe an upgrade here and there? Build your own deck, from scratch, without EDHREC or other card suggestion sites. Are you always the goofball, doing something silly at the table? Hyper tune a deck and run the table over. Get out of your comfort zone and do something different.

Because life often doesn't let us really stretch. We have school telling us to sit in our seat and listen. We have jobs which tell us what to wear, what to say, how to behave. We have family obligations and responsibilities to parents and children and siblings and found family. But in Commander, we can do whatever we want - and the stakes couldn't be lower. What's the worst that can happen? No one will feed you less if you lose. (If they will, stop playing in those games.) Commander is a rare place where we can stretch far outside our comfort zone and be completely safe. Our friends will still like us, and we can shuffle up a new deck next game.

In that spirit, today's unlikely Commander/Background combination appears. An advantage of Backgrounds is we take a single-color Commander and make it two-color. Well, not so much here. Also, we can choose Backgrounds and Commanders which work great together, have obvious synergy. Like the last few decks I've built, again, not-so-much this time. Nope, let's build Dragon Kindred!

Thanks to a number of sets which have featured Dragons, we've actually ended up with quite a few we can play here. Durnan will help us get them out quickly and cheaply, as will our Background. Let's take a look.

Durnan EDH | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commanders (2)
• 1 Durnan of the Yawning Portal
• 1 Acolyte of Bahamut

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Ambitious Dragonborn
• 1 Ancient Bronze Dragon
• 1 Avenging Hunter
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bloodline Pretender
• 1 Defiler of Vigor
• 1 Destructor Dragon
• 1 Draconic Muralists
• 1 Dread Linnorm
• 1 Drumhunter
• 1 Earthquake Dragon
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Foe-Razer Regent
• 1 Green Dragon
• 1 Herdchaser Dragon
• 1 Jugan, the Rising Star
• 1 Kura, the Boundless Sky
• 1 Lurking Green Dragon
• 1 Masked Vandal
• 1 Old Gnawbone
• 1 Realmwalker
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1 Scaled Nurturer
• 1 Skanos Dragonheart
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Vigor
• 1 Wandering Troubadour

• Land (40)
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the Dragon Queen
• 1 War Room
• 27 Forest

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Dragon's Hoard
• 1 Herald's Horn
• 1 Jade Orb of Dragonkind
• 1 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1 Monster Manual
• 1 Rhonas's Monument

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Elemental Bond
• 1 Fight Rigging
• 1 Garruk's Uprising
• 1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Jugan Defends the Temple
• 1 Sylvan Anthem
• 1 The Dragon-Kami Reborn
• 1 Unnatural Growth

• Spells (15)
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker
• 1 Emerald Dragon
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Khalni Ambush
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nissa's Pilgrimage
• 1 Peregrination
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Ezuri's Predation
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede

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This deck looks like a ridiculous amount of fun to me. Durnan, if he can sneak through defenses, will likely flip up a Dragon for us to cast with Undaunted, but even if he can't, we still get a decent discount from Acolyte of Bahamut. And with three-mana ramp spells, we can cast our Background, ramp, then our Commander, then cast a six-, seven-, or eight-mana Dragon on turn five!

We have our standard 40 Lands, most of which are Basic Forests since we don't actually need much else. Cultivate and the like at three mana will all dig out those Lands, as will Peregrination for a mana more. We've also got Rhonas's Monument, which doesn't tap for mana but makes almost everything we cast cheaper, Herald's Horn, which makes our most important spells (our Dragons) cheaper, and Jade Orb of Dragonkind, which is super fun when it comes down early. We should have no trouble hitting our mana.

Hall of the Bandit Lord used to be in every deck I played and played against, but in the last several years it's dropped off in favor of Equipment like Greaves. However, I think it's wonderful here, since it doesn't take up a non-Land slot and can accelerate our game plan, whether it's with Durnan or a Dragon. Rogue's Passage is great with Durnan, as is Access Tunnel, both providing ways for him to slip through and give us access to more cards. Myriad Landscape ramps us further and thins our deck, and we have a number of Dragon-based Lands which will be nice to have.

I'm a huge fan of cards like Garruk's Uprising. It's so simple, and it keeps cards moving into our Hand where we need them. We have a few effects like this, including Drumhunter and Guardian Project, each of which should help to make sure we have new gas for the Battlefield. Dragon's Hoard ramps and draws, which is perfect here. Then we've got some big spells like Rishkar's Expertise, and War Room, which should probably be in every mono-color deck from here on out.

What does all this mana and all these cards get us? A bunch of Dragons, that's what. We're running the best options Green has to offer, and we'll win by attacking with them. There are a number of great ones here, like Jugan, the Rising Star, Kura, the Boundless Sky, and Old Gnawbone. We've also got some weirder ones like Wandering Troubadour, but who knows? We might finish a Dungeon along the way! Combine it with Avenging Hunter and we've got a super-mini-theme! Then we have some basic beaters to fill out the Dragon count.

Rec Sage and Foe-Razer Regent are examples of the sort of answers we've got. It's not a ton, but hopefully we're putting on enough pressure it's not too much of an issue. But just in case, we have Beast Within and Khalni Ambush along with Heroic Intervention. We should be able to surprise a few people with some of those along the way.

Some of our most fun cards come from outside Dragons, mana, and more cards, though. Unnatural Growth is super silly here, as is Overwhelming Stampede. Jugan Defends the Temple is fun, and Monster Manual can further our board development - play a cheap Dragon off Durnan, then drop another one with Monster Manual. Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is here mostly because we can play our Dragons at Instant speed with her out, but I don't mind either of her two loyalty abilities. Then there's Vigor, which should make people question if attacking us - or blocking our attack - is worth the effect.

One more thing I'd like to mention. My editor suggested Ebony Horse, because it can pull Durnan from combat after attacking - great if we can't push him through anywhere. That's worth consideration, but it led me to add Maze of Ith, which functions the same way. Normally we use it defensively, but with it untapped we can attack into whatever board we want and simply remove Durnan after his trigger, before damage. Sweet.

So there you have it: mono-Green Dragons with an unexpected combination of Commander and Background. And I'm telling you, this deck works. It plays great, it does what it says it's going to do, and it's likely to be completely unexpected. It also isn't mean or disruptive; it plays fair, wins in the red zone, and isn't broken, just solid. It should also be a good bit of fun to play, and the faces of your opponents is just a bonus.

What have you done to stretch yourself in Commander? What's the craziest deck you've ever played (for you)? When did you confound expectations? I'd love to hear about it on social media, so please reach out!

In the meantime, put two things which don't normally go together next to each other and see what happens. You might be surprised.

Thanks for reading.